Previously in NWC-
Reno and Luna argued . Reno found the spot he would turn into his training area in the future. Reno and Luna argued some more! Reno began looking into the far future as improving their housing situation. The mayor began telling Reno about his dreams and ambitions for the village of Bambadale...
As if nothing was wrong, the mayor begins to speak with excitement once more. "We could try to invest in better defenses, but who would run them? There's nobody in the town who knows to handle such things."
"I see. I guess that makes sense."
"In case you haven't notice, Bambadale doesn't have much young blood."
"I guess I never really noticed. But who'd want to move here with a family?"
"No one!"
"This place is screwed then!"
"Not quite, young Reno! Think about it! If we were to expand Bambadale and get a better means of trade going, our little town would be more appealing! Nobody wants to live in a backwater town that's only selling point is self-sufficiency. Bambadale has nothing to offer young blood hoping to start a life!"
Reno is unable to hide his growing distress. "Old man! Why would you tell this to your only prospective resident?! This place can't seriously be THAT bad! There's gotta' be ONE redeeming factor?!"
"Nope! Not one! This place is as backwater as it gets!" The mayor smiles as he proudly proclaims the state of the town.
"You gotta' give me SOMETHING to work with!"
The mayor laughs as he watches Reno desperately try to defend the town. "Let me ask you something!"
"What?!"
"Why do you care so much?"
The mayor's questions catches Reno off guard, forcefully making Reno calm down to think. "What? I mean… I don't really know, I guess. It's not like I didn't notice there wasn't really anything to do here, but I didn't think the place sucked because of that."
"And?"
"And? Everyone here's nice and seems to enjoy what they do. The place isn't great, but it isn't TERRIBLE. Truth be told, if there wasn't an ever-impending bandit raid, I'd say this place would be pretty desirable."
The mayor happily nods his head as he listens to Reno. "Exactly, you hit it right on the head!"
"Then why were you saying the place sucked?!"
"What's your job, young Reno?"
"Carpenter?"
"Wrong!"
"Fuck you mean wrong?!" Reno slams his hands on the table, his confusion and irritation growing.
"Your job is to do whatever you want! You just happened to choose to fill in as a carpenter!"
"Start making sense!"
"It's a citizen's job to do whatever the hell they want! It's the mayor's job to make it so everyone can do just that!"
"So what? Only you're responsible for the development of Bambadale? Everyone else is just doing whatever they want?"
"Sorta'! It's my job to make everyone love Bambadale. Are the dots connecting?"
"Not really."
"Young Reno. Why'd you choose to take over as a carpenter? You told me you had no experience, yet you took the job anyway."
"Truth be told, it sounded like an easy enough job. Fixing fences sounded easy and I wanted to make money."
"Okay. But why are you still doing it?"
"What? It's only been a couple of days. Do I really seem like someone who'd give up at something that quickly?"
"Not at all! But you said fixing fences seemed easy and like quick money. So how come you didn't quit after I asked you to cut down trees, fix the storage building, and to help with that iron?"
"I mean, yeah, that stuff is harder than fixing fences, but it helps everyone out, so I don't mind."
"Exactly!" The mayor shouts with a new found excitement.
Reno flinches slightly at the sudden shout. "Exactly what?!"
"Even if carpentry isn't what you want to do, you're still doing what you want to do!"
"That sentence makes approximately negative sense." Reno crosses his arms and leans back in his chair after finishing his food. He's given up at trying to follow the conversation.
"You're doing carpentry for the sake of helping others. Carpentry isn't what you want to do; Helping people is. My job as mayor is to make it so everyone can do what they want. So, if everyone just wants to help the village grow, then my responsibility of helping Bambadale grow is easy enough!"
"Let me see if I'm following. You're trying to grow Bambadale, and to do this you're trying to make it so that people don't want a specific job but just want to help."
"You got it!"
"But that doesn't matter if the bandits keep attacking. People can want to help all day long, but if you don't do anything about the fact that your village is getting attacked all the time then it doesn't matter. Why are you trying to grow Bambadale before fixing the preexisting problems?"
"If the village grows, then we'd be able to attract some young blood hoping to make a name as a hero or something."
"I'm so glad this place doesn't have a casino, 'cause you seem to rely on gambling way too much!"
The mayor sighs, finally calming down from his heated discussion. "I know it sounds dumb, but it's the only hope this town's got."
"I think you should fix your bandit problem first."
"I wish it were that easy, Young Reno." The mayor's previous excitement has subsided, his expression somber.
Reno studies the mayor's face before finally speaking again. "I've noticed a lot of people just kind of accept the bandits as a part of daily life. What's up with that?"
"It's not like we can do much. Like I said, the village doesn't have much young blood. The young ones we do have are far too young, and we can't risk any able-bodied adults. As long as we give the bandits what we got they don't kill none of us. It's not like nobody's said nothin'. When it first started everyone was grabbing their torches and were ready to light the whole forest on fire!"
"I know you said you've reached out to the king before, but why exactly won't they come? It can't be because paying one guy to open a portal is too expensive."
"Towns pay taxes based off how many people are living there. We aint got the population for it to be an investment for them to help us. I reckon they'd be happier if we all wound up dead!"
Reno thinks to himself for a bit, leaving the mayor to sit in silence. Finally, Reno makes his decision. "Fine. I'll do what I can to help this town. I might not have the same level of attachment to this place as the others, but I think it's worth protecting. I'll do what I can to help this village!"
The mayor lets out a breath of relief. His somber expression is broken by a small smile. "You're nothin' short of a gift from Mixzys herself, young Reno."
"Oh please, stop that." Reno becomes slightly giddy, scratching the back of his head and waving his other hand.
"I'm serious!"
"Me too. I've never gotten such a compliment before and I'm not really sure how to respond to it."
The mayor laughs, standing up and taking their dishes. "Well! I'm feeling raring to go! This old man's got some planning to do, so I'll let ya' enjoy the rest of your day!"
Reno stands up and stretches, heading for the door. "Thanks, old man! I'll see you later!" Reno bids the mayor farewell and leaves. He immediately goes across the street to the storage building. As soon as the door closes, he speaks. "Luna."
As if expecting this, Luna pops out of his shirt, speaking with the same level of determination. "I'll aid you however I can."
"First things first. Looks like Mr. Kent put the crates by the ladder. Let's get this iron in his hands by tomorrow." Reno starts climbing the sketchy ladder, this time with slightly less fear of it breaking. Reno sighs as he looks at the 5 crates full of iron. "This is gonna be exhausting."
Luna, sensing Reno's lack of motivation, tries to cheer him up. "It's quite amazing, isn't it?"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Seeing everyone work together. I can sense the sincerity in everyone's actions."
"What do you mean?" Reno begins to pull the chunks of iron out of the old crates and carefully drop them down in to the new ones.
"Kent was originally going to bring those crates tomorrow. However, he decided to take time out of his busy day to bring them almost as soon as you left."
"I mean, I guess so?"
"And you. You're here preparing things early for him too."
"I mean, if I'm going to do it anyways then I might as well do it now."
"You may try to hide your true motives behind lies all you want, but I'm no fool."
Reno looks at her with minor annoyance. "What are you going on about?"
"I'd say you care about this village just as much as the mayor, who continues to carry aspirations for this village, and Kent, who upon hearing a precious resource was found, expedited the process to getting the resources into the town."
"I mean, obviously I'd try to make the place nicer. I'm looking at living here after all."
"But, rather than accepting the village for what it is, you're going above and beyond for the place."
"Sure, I guess?"
"Reno. You told the mayor you were uncertain of how to act when you received his praise. Allow me to help you this time. Be proud of what you've done. You may shrug it off as 'just doing what seems convenient', but that's unfair to yourself."
Reno sighs, trying to repress a smile. "Who said you were allowed to get all sappy? It's kind of annoying that YOU of all people are getting me fired up."
"I refuse to allow you to ruin this moment. I will simply act as if that last statement was not made." Luna watches as Reno continues to move the iron, almost finished with the first crate.
TO BE CONTINUED...